Writings from West Virginia: Miracle Week!

Hello hello everyone! We had an amazing week this week! The Lord really blessed us for the effort we've been putting in to really become consecrated and full purpose missionaries! Here are some of the highlights of the past week:

For P-day last Monday we met up as a District and had fun playing at the soccer fields that SVU uses! It was drizzling a little bit, so that made it all the more fun! A few young men also were there to play with us, but they are like, actual soccer players, so they won. A lot. :P It was still a blast though to get out and run!

Tuesday was a CRAZY, but really AWESOME day. We had MLC on Tuesday, which stands for Mission Leadership Council. All the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders meet President and the Assistants in Charleston at 9 in the morning. That was an amazing experience. A lot of my friends in the mission were there, including my former companion Elder Davis! I forgot to grab pictures, so that was a bummer, but oh well! I learned a LOT (It was a 7 hour conference, so there was a lot of time to learn a lot, haha). I am excited to be serving the capacity that I am! I hope I can be a blessing to those that I lead.

After MLC, which ended at 4, we went on an exchange with the Assistants! I had the chance to stay in Charleston wit Elder Markowski! IT WAS AMAZING! He taught me so much, and we were only together for 24 hours! I am applying what I learned the best way that I can so that I can be the best missionary I can be! He really did teach me a lot. We had a blast together.

Skipping ahead to Thursday, we had two Stake Correlations! Stake Correlation is when the missionaries, Stake President, Mission President, and anyone else the Stake/Mission President invites comes to a meeting at the Stake Center to discuss the missionary work of the stake! Unfortunately, President Salisbury wasn't able to be there, so for the first Stake Correlation it was just us, President B. (Mission Presidency counselor), and a High Councilman from the BV stake (Becuase the Stake President wansn't able to be there either.) It was a really great meeting though!

The second Correlation meeting was with the YSA Stake President and one of his high councilmen! President Bohon also came to that one. President Brotherson (Stake Pres) is a really awesome guy, and we had a really good conversation about what we can do better as a YSA stake. I think usually the YSA elders usually go to that stake correlation, but since we are covering the YSA ward for the summer, it was our job!

Thursday night we had a miracle! We were invited over to dinner with the G. family, who are house-sitting for another member family while they are on vacation! We had a fun dinner and lesson with them, but the reason I bring them up was the prayer at the end and it's results! They had their younger son, C., who is probably around 9 or 10, say the closing prayer. In his prayer, he asked that the missionaries (us) be led to those that need to hear the gospel. It was a really nice thing for him to say, and we said thank you and went on our way.

Not 5 minutes later, just down the street, we stop and talk to this lady (literally two doors down from the G. family). At first, she really isn't interested. She was married to a less-active LDS man for a while, but they got a divorce. She also expressed some discontentment with the way she felt some members of the church had judged her (not sure how true that is, but it was a definite concern that we wanted to help her with). We kept being persistent and talking with her, and eventually Elder Numbers asked if he could share a scripture with her. The scripture, out of 2 Nephi 4, totally softened her heart and she suddenly became interested! It was a miracle! We picked her up as a new investigator, and she committed to baptism "after she learned more and felt she was ready!" WOOOO!!! It was amazing.

Friday continued the amazingness of Thursday, starting with Zone Meeting! I was pretty nervous, but it was amazing! The Sister Training Leaders came up from Roanoke to help us teach, and they were a HUGE help! We really focused on getting the zone involved in the conversation so that we weren't just spewing information at them and them not getting anything out of it. By doing that, we got insights from just about everybody, and we were all edified and uplifted! It was fantastic. We were really blessed!

That night we had a lesson with our less active that we've been working with, Sister C.! She is moving along, and is slowly getting better at dealing with the problems she faces in life. We brought an 18 year old young man, Z., to the lesson with us, and that was awesome! He is such a fantastic teacher, it was a real blessing to bring him along. She still isn't coming to church though, so we are going to hammer that one next lesson! She's so close to returning to activity. She just needs a good push in the right direction and more and more fellowship.

Saturday afternoon we had a lesson with a girl named S.! She has been investigating for a long time, and has some real desires to change her life and become better. We are really blessed to be able to teach her! We brought a YSA guy named B., our YSA Ward Mission Leader and the son of the Family ward Bishop. He got back from his mission to Alberta about a year ago, and he's still a great teacher! It was HUGE to take him with us, and we think it helped S. out a lot. We're hoping to get her to church sometime soon!

Later that day, another miracle occurred! We were tracting around a less actives house, and we ran into this girl, T. At first she gives the usual response that she is Christian and goes to church, so whatever, but we are PERSISTENT missionaries, and kept talking to her! Had a great conversation about prophets and false prophets and recognizing the true from the false. Her heart was opened, we set a return appointment (for tonight!), got her number and address, and left! It was great. The Lord really blessed His missionaries.

Church on Sunday was fantastic! It always is. The sacrament was especially meaningful to me this time around. I'm so grateful for the chance I have to renew my covenants EACH WEEK! That is a tender mercy that we all have the opportunity to experience. Elder Numbers and I actually both gave talks about Baptism in church! I love to speak in public, so it was a blast for me! I hope that my message was able to be taken into the hearts of the congregation! I asked for referrals, you know, because I'm a missionary. :P It was kinda funny.

That was my week! Thank you all for your love and support of me this past year! I love all of you and hope you have a fantastic week! Make it the best one yet!

Love,

Elder B Johnson