Writings from West Virginia: Hello Friends and Family!

Hello friends and everyone! Not a whole lot of time or a whole lot to report on, so lets jump into it!

On Tuesday we had a fun Mission Conference Call with all of the Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, and President Salisbury! We talked about the mission and it's needs, answered questions, and gave our thoughts. We've been talking a lot lately about how to continue to work effectively even when it gets super cold and dark really fast (Gotta love the winter).

We also had a really awesome district meeting that Elder Kelly taught! All about not getting discouraged as we work to continue to keep up the amazing things that we have been doing, and to continue to go even higher! It was a very spiritual meeting and I think the district was really pumped up to do awesome work.

That night we had the chance to teach B. and D. We went in with the intent to teach them about the law of tithing and fast offerings, but the Lord had something else in mind (He often does). We ended up spending the whole time resolving their concerns with baptism, and this time they set their OWN goal of November 8th for their baptism! WE ARE SO EXCITED! Unfortunately that may be after transfers, so I don't know if I'll be here, but that's okay. As long as they get baptized, that's all that matters! Success for one is success for all.

Wednesday was a slower day, but we were able to pick up a new investigator named S. Elder Numbers and I had found him EONS ago but never were able to catch him at home until now. Previously he had been a little closed with us, but in the lesson we were able to have he really opened up and asked some questions that concerned him. Hopefully we did a good job resolving them! We have a meeting with him tomorrow.

Thursday night we were finally able to see J. and K. again! Not sure if I've talked about them before in the past, but they are living together and have 2 little kids. We started talking to them as we were walking down the street and they expressed some interest in family history! This time we were able to go back and teach J. about the Plan of Salvation and why we do family history work. We eventually got to how the Book of Mormon is the keystone of everything we teach, and asked that when he came to know it was true, would he be baptized by authority on December 12th! He accepted! How cool. It was a great experience.

On Friday we headed down to Timberlake (Lynchburg) to attend the Timberlake and Gretna Elder's district meeting! Elder Ward, their district leader, did a great job talking about Our Purpose and Chapter 1 of Preach My Gospel. It was sweet. After that, Elder Underhill and Elder Kitchen (Elder Ward's two companions), and I headed back up to BV for an exchange! It was a lot of fun, especially to be in a tripanionship. Never a dull moment! While on exchanges, we were able to teach B. and D. again! This time we finally got around to Tithing and Fast Offerings, and it was a really great meeting. They both committed to live it and are excited to help build the kingdom!

Sunday we had a really good day! It was a really good end to the week. Speaking just briefly, we were able to pick up two new investigators! We met J. at our booth for family history, and we met his wife B. when we went over to his house! We were able to have a really good talk about Family History and the Plan of Salvation, and they committed to read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet! That's pretty cool. We're excited! I was also able to put my programming knowledge to use and give their daughter, who wants to be a game designer, some websites and programs to get that will help get her started. They seemed to really appreciate that.

That was my week! Thank you all for your support and for reading this! I LOVE YOU ALL!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson