3 Exchanges and 2 On Date!

Hello hello! I have 12 minutes. Let's see how fast I can pump this puppy out!

So yeah, by the title you can tell that we had an awesome week this week! Lets jump into Monday! Basically for the whole day we cleaned, haha. We had inspections the next day (which didn't go so well, but that's okay, everything is taken care of now) so we spent the whole day trying to make sure everything was good. We did get to go to a delicious Country Buffet with a wonderful member of ours for lunch! That was awesome. We also had dinner that night with the T's, and Correlation with Brother Tu., the Ward Mission Leader, after that. We've come up with a great new idea for communicating among the Ward Mission Leader and Ward Missionaries. It's a Google Spreadsheet on Google Drive that everyone in the Ward Missionary Force has access to (except for us, dang myldsmail) and it has all the members that we visit on there during the week, the commitment we left with them, and the friends they want to share the gospel with. How awesome is that? So awesome! It makes communication and knowing when to follow-up a lot easier.

7 minutes!

Tuesday started our exchanges! I was with Elder Gerke (currently serving in Gretna, VA) up here in Buena Vista! He is an awesome younger elder who has a lot of fire! It was a lot of fun serving with him. We rode our bikes HARD. We had like 3 different back to back appointments with members (the A.'s (dinner!), the G.'s, and the B.'s), all freaking as far away as possible from each other, so we were going hard. It was a lot of fun though!

Wednesday we (Elder Gerke and I) were able to teach a new investigator named M.! He's a self-described "truth-seeker" and is a very open and humble guy. He does NOT want to be deceived and end up in hell. I think his skepticism though was removed his faith in Jesus Christ, so we'll have to start there when we have our next appointment with him.

Thursday I was on exchanges with Elder Kelly in Rockbridge! That was fun. For those of you who don't know, I went to Elementary, Junior High and High School with Elder Kelly! He's a great elder. I think the highlight of that exchange was eating a true country meal with their investigator L., Venison, Taters, and Turnips! Also having a preacher subtly call us out for believing in something other than the Bible during our Bible Study (darn Rev. 22:18)

Friday we picked up a new investigator named J.! He was very interested to hear about the Atonement, because he's messed up a lot in his life, and kind of poured his soul out to us in our lesson. He is a humble guy that really wants to change.

Saturday we saw J. and his girlfriend M., who we picked up last week! This time I was on exchanges with Elder Vai from Amherst up in BV. We had a GREAT lesson with them and set them on date for December 19th! WOOOOOO! I think they'll make it too. They were very sorry that they didn't come to church yesterday, and committed themselves to come next week! Pray for them. They are awesome. They have these two adorable little kids, S., and C. Good things are happening!

We also picked up a girl named T. on Saturday! She is G.'s wife, so now hopefully we are going to be able to teach both of them! That will be great. The progression goes so much faster when the whole family is on board. We taught her about the Book of Mormon, gave one to her, and she was interested!

Lastly, we had an awesome Sacrament Meeting! It was all hymns. People would go up to the pulpit and suggest hymn to sing and why they are important. That was exciting.

Out of time! I love you all! Thank you for your support! Have a GREAT WEEK!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

Me on the bike!

Dinner with the T. Family!

Serving in Three Ways!

Hello everyone! 

Not a whole lot happened this week seeing people wise. Not really sure why. We have a ton of appointments set up for this week though and it is going to be awesome! We found a lot of potential investigators last week that we talked to on the street/any other opportunity we had, and we have a lot of appointments set up for this week! 

That being said, this week was still AMAZING! We had a member of the Seventy, Elder Erich W. Kopishke, come to the mission and teach us in a three day mission tour! What an amazing experience that was! The spiritual power that you can feel from these brethren is just amazing. He was a very energetic, very German man. He wasn't afraid to say anything that he felt needed to be said. No beating around the bush or going through the back door with him. He was bold, and it was awesome. It was also really funny, when he'd get excited, he'd start rattling off in German to his wife, who is also German. It was great. Here's a funny quote from the Wednesday conference:

"So you are almost in the south, almost in the bible belt...." - Elder Kopishke

"This is the south." - Quiet voice from the Stake President's pew

"Wait. This is the South?" - Elder Kopsishke

"Yeah..."

"ITS THE NORTHEAST!"

That was really super funny. He taught us a really good teaching model of teaching, asking, and testifying when we talk to people. That's what Elder Brenchley and I did for the potential investigators we found, and that's why they were interested! I can testify that these men are definitely inspired. There is no other way! Follow them and study their words, they are the words of God.

On Friday we had the opportunity to head up to Charleston for a special Mission Leadership Council (MLC) with Elder and Sister Kopishke, and President and Sister Salisbury. We learned a TON and are really excited to share it with everyone that we work with! Especially the missionaries we are with. We have 3 exchanges this week (Elder Brenchley and I are hardly going to see each other), so that we can share everything we learned. I think the number 1 thing was just helping them (the missionaries) with the things they want help with. Something else he taught us was that "they cannot receive anything they are not ready to receive." What great words of wisdom. They have to want to receive it before they can receive it!

This Sunday, yesterday, we had the opportunity to stand in the circle as Sister B. was confirmed! That was an amazing blessing. She is an official member!

Alrighty, funny story! So a couple weeks ago the Assistants called us wondering what the possibility of taking our car would be. We talked about it and unconditionally offered our car, because here in BV you don't need a car. Just really strong legs (these hills were NOT that hilly last week, I swear). So on Friday we get a call from Elder Rueda, one of our Assistants, wondering the possibilities of taking the car TOMORROW. I said sure, and the next day, it happened! Some missionaries drove up here from Roanoke to take the car, drove it up to where it needed to go, then later the Assistants brought them back down and they took their own car back to Roanoke. The Assistants also brought bikes with them! So officially I am a bike elder now. Crazy stuff! So for the 8ish hours that the Roanoke elders took our car, I was in a walking area, and now that we have the bikes, I'm in a bike area. 3 areas in two days! Riding bikes is a lot of fun, even if I now see how out of shape I am, haha.

Thank you for reading this everyone! I love you all and hope you have the best week ever! I'll talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

D&C 6:36

Elder Millard (and Sister Kirkby photobombing)!

Elder Wheeler!

Elder Young (who I came out with)

A really hilarious sign we saw in Princeton. - #sodumb

Goodbye dear car. We love you. :)

Trying on a new suit - hey mom--Christmas??? :) #suave

Ready to bike. #bringiton

A Short Week and Baptism!

Hello hello! It was a short week this week, but ended with a BAPTISM! Sister B. was baptized yesterday on Sunday, November 8th, 2015! What a special day it was. It was awesome. But we'll get there! That was at the end.

On Wednesday, we had the district come down to the institute building and we played some basketball! Not too exciting, but it was fun. That night we had a lesson with B. and D! We taught Family History and Temples. It went well at the beginning, but there was some confusion at the end that we had to clear up, but after we left (had another appointment), apparently B. was able to find a couple people on some census' on FamilySearch! You gotta love modern-day technology, don't ya? It makes things so much easier!

Friday was interesting! Some stuff went down that just made the day crazy. Missions are crazy! We did get to eat at The Original Italian Restaurant, where we had a HUGE Stromboli, and it was DELICIOUS. Nothing better than a pizza sandwich. Mmm. Anyway! We got to give a blessing to Sister H., who wanted to go to the temple that next day (Saturday), but wasn't feeling super well. Hopefully she's feeling better today! Brother T., our Ward Mission Leader, came with us for that meeting.

Saturday we touched base with B. and got everything ready for her baptism! Due to some crazy circumstances, we weren't able to get anything ready for the baptism until today, so it was a mad rush to get everything ready! I sent a picture of the baptismal program. I think it turned out pretty well! The hymns were per her request. We also had an awesome dinner appointment with the Anderson family and their family friends, J. and C. Brother A. used to work at The Italian Place in St. George, so he made some awesome Garlic Bread. I ate WAY to much, but it was so good. We had a really good conversation about conversion and staying true to the gospel you know. It was really great!

SUNDAY WAS THE BAPTISM! She was just glowing. She was really nervous leading up to it, but I think it was all dispelled because of the support she had. Elder Brenchley was able to be a part of the Sacrament Meeting and he gave a great talk centered on Elder James B. Martino's talk from this past conference. It was great! He did a great job. The whole sacrament meeting was just fantastic! The 3 speakers just did wonderfully. All the talks were focused on finding answers to gospel questions. 

After church was the baptismal service! 54 people came to support B. on her big day, including her grandson, N! It was great that he came to support his grandma. We were really grateful that he came and showed her support. 

After that we went over to The B.'s house for a quick dinner that they invited B. to, and then we had to run to get down to Lynchburg for a baptismal interview! Elder Vai and Elder Malin are rocking it down in the Lynchburg 2nd Ward! M. will be baptized next week! I got to chat with her member husband, M., for a bit while Elder Brenchley interviewed her. The work is so exciting! I'm so blessed to be here and be apart of this wonderful work. It is truly hastening!

Thank you all for reading! Sorry it's a little shorter! I love all of you tons! Have a great week, make it the best one ever!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

The glowing missionaries with the glowing Sister B.

Firesides, Testimonies, and Transfers!

Hello hello everyone! It's been a week and a half since this last email, so I have TONS to tell you about! This week really was a good week, especially for the zone. We were very blessed! 10 people in the zone in the past 2 weeks were baptized! What a blessing it is to see the fruits of all the missionaries' hard work over these last couple transfers.

Monday was a bunch of fun! After getting a free haircut by one of the members of our ward (Thank you Sister C!) we headed down to Lynchburg! We had a baptismal interview down there at 6:30, so we decided to go down early and play around in a "big city" (like 70,000 people, which is HUGE for me). We got to go to Ross, where I learned how wonderful cheap stuff actually is, and also got to eat at PANDA EXPRESS! #tendermerciesarereal

Like I mentioned before, I had the chance to interview J. for baptism, one of the Amherst elder's investigators. My first interview! That was so awesome. He was ready, and was baptized just this past Sunday! I'm so thankful I had the chance to hear his testimony of the Gospel. It was a wonderful testimony and reminder of why we do this work! Bringing people unto Christ, and let them earn their testimony too.

Tuesday was awesome as well! We had MLC, which meant a 3:15 alarm and a 4 hour drive up to Charleston! The meeting was really really good. We focused on teaching the doctrine simply and on teaching the Book of Mormon. I feel like I gained quite a bit out of it. It's so fun to be that meeting, as a mission council, being able to discuss the needs of the mission openly. We have another MLC coming up, a special one, with Elder Erich W Kopishke of the Seventy! That will be awesome. On the drive back from MLC, we stopped in Princeton, WV to drop some stuff off to the elders there, and we went to dinner! All 10 missionaries! (BV, Roanoke, and Pembroke Zone Leaders, as well as the Roanoke and Christiansburg Sister Training Leaders) It was a ton of fun to be able to sit down and just chat with President and Sister Salisbury over dinner. Got back just before midnight, almost got sprayed by a skunk, and barely even got my clothes off and sweats on before I was asleep, haha. Total time awake: 21 hours. I haven't done that in 18 months!

Wednesday we had the Ward Chili Cookoff! That was a ton of fun. Brother F. brought his crazy hot and homemade salsa that I'm pretty sure burns calories because it's so hot. We got to meet a few non members that people had brought, and so that made it all worth it!

Friday we got to teach Zone Meeting! I think it was received well and that people who contributed got a lot out of it. I certainly did! I had the chance to conduct, and so that is always really fun. We went out to lunch afterward and I had a HUGE Pulled Pork Sandwich Burger monstrosity. I saved some for the next day, haha. (See Picture)

We got to teach B. and D. again on Halloween afternoon! We went over the baptismal interview questions, and apparently D. is DEATHLY afraid of interviews. We talked about it and she seemed pretty resigned to the fact that the interview was going to happen, haha. But she was very animated and bold about her dislike for the interview and expressed her displeasure in a most forward way. She's so funny sometimes. Transfer info also came in on Halloween. Elder Brenchley and I will both be staying in Buena Vista for another 6 weeks! Woo hoo! What a tender mercy. We BOTH get to see their baptism.

Sunday was the fireside day! B. came to church that day! Woooooo! Not only that, but she got up, and with the help of President B., her amazing member friend, she BORE HER TESTIMONY AT THE PULPIT!!! I don't think I've ever been so proud to teach someone. That was amazing. She told us afterward, "I didn't tell you I was going to do it because I didn't know myself!" haha. Man, that was a blessing.

But anyway! Back to the fireside. All the weeks of planning, preparing, advertising, scheduling, etc etc ALL CAME TOGETHER! President J., our Stake President, conducted the meeting. What a powerful meeting it was! The Spirit was so strong. It was amazing! There was a musical number, Nearer My God To Thee, sung by a YSA girl that was incredible. The testimonies were awesome, just everything was perfect! I will definitely be hosting some more on my mission before it's over.

Monday was really fun for dinner! The L.'s had us over and we ate Cow Tongue! "Tongue Tacos" to be exact. Mmmmm. Elder Brenchley was very thankful they showed him the picture AFTER he ate. Apparently they bought it fresh! Haha, but after that we got to go help Brother L. with his Elders Quorum visits (He's in the Elders Quorum Presidency), and that was fun. Got to see some really good people. B. and D.'s baptismal interview was also Monday night! They both passed, which was awesome. They are ready and we are excited.

Tuesday morning we had a lesson with Brother W. He is a gung-ho returning less-active and recently moved into the BV ward with family. He has some problems that he is overcoming, and he is one of the sweetest, most tender-hearted people I know. We are teaching him the lessons, and then having him teach us next time. That will be really fun! Hopefully it will help him too.

We also, as we were tracting, asked this nice older lady, B., if we could rake her leaves. She let us, and we had a blast! We invited the W. boys to come help us, too! I got to use the big leaf blower, and that was awesome. If there were trees in Utah, I would totally get one for awesome easy blowing access. But what was funny is that her husband rolled up after a little while and gave us a $100 bill! HOLY CRAP! Who just rolls around with a Franklin in their pocket? AND HE WOULDN'T TAKE IT BACK. It will definitely going into Fast Offerings if he still wont take it. Not our pocket!

We also had a great lesson with B. and D. on service and the Priesthood. Seeing them again tonight for the family history lesson. That will be a good one!

That is my week! Thank you all for taking the time to read it. I love each of you and hope you have the best week ever! Let me bear my testimony before I go that I know the Book of Mormon is the Word of God. I know it! And I thank my God that I know it, and have the chance to declare to the world what I know. Have a great day!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

Stopped at a lookout. It's all dead now and there are 6 BILLION+ leaves everywhere.

Me and the amazing Elder Numbers!

#partybus

From left to right: Elder Bingham, Myself, Elder Wilkinson, Elder Poyfair, Elder Brenchley, Elder Millard

Our wonderful Buena Vista ZONE!

Elder H. Rasmussen

Elder Goold

Elder Anderton

Elder Fidel

Elder Kitchen

Elder Kelly

Elder Whiting

Elder French

Elder Malin

Elder Hugentobler

Myself

Elder Brenchley

Elder M. Rasmussen

Elder Tunell

Elder Ward

Elder Underhill

Elder Moser

Elder Hallewell

Elder Tupou

Elder Vai

Elder Hill

Elder Ostler

Elder Thompson

Sister Lively

Sister Pugh

Sister Moeai

Sister Ford

Sister Banks

Sister Harrison

Sister Flake

Sister Skanchy

So much food!

Mmmmmmmm....

All beautiful roads lead to Lynchburg!