Writings from West Virginia: Seven and a Half Months in Buena Vista!

Hello everyone! I'm sure you guessed it in the title, but I'm staying in Buena Vista for another transfer! Elder Brenchley is getting transferred to Roanoke Virginia, downtown area. He's super excited and is going to have a blast. My new companion is Elder Wasden! He's been out 6 months now and I'm sure he's a superstar! I'm excited to be having the opportunity to serve with him! We are also getting 4 brand new district leaders in the zone, so the next week or so is going to be BUSY! Luckily it will be a little easier though BECAUSE WE'RE GETTING A CAR BACK! A Toyota Sienna to be exact. It has been nick-named the "USS Enterprise." It's a wonderful Minivan. #MormonAssaultVehicle #SoccerMomStatus

Anyway! It's transfers week this week, so it's been 9 days since the last email! I have a ton to tell you about!!

Last Monday we saw the B. family again with Brother T. We showed them the new Christmas Initiative #ASaviorIsBorn (Christmas.Mormon.org) and testified of the power of the Sacrament. Things are moving slowly with them, but hopefully someday we will see progress! We also followed up with a potential we found the day before and picked up his girlfriend as a new investigator! We're having a bit of trouble getting back into contact with her, but such is missionary work, right?

Not a ton happened on Tuesday. We brought Brother H. to a lesson with J., our Spanish Investigator (we have a ton of RMs in BV and it's awesome) but sadly J. wasn't there. Blah! Why can't people just KEEP APPOINTMENTS. Eh, hopefully we find him soon! We did contact a referral that the M. family gave us, their neighbor C. She's VERY familiar with Latter-Day Saints and was very nice and gracious but isn't super interested at this time. We shared #ASaviorIsBorn with her and left on good terms. Real nice lady!

On Wednesday I was on exchanges with Elder Rasmussen, one of our District Leaders, up in Clifton Forge! We had a pretty good time, tried a few people, ate some Taco Bell, etc. He's a good Elder, headed up to Clarksburg for his last 3 months of his mission. It's been great working with him!

On Thursday we had the Christmas Specialized Training with President Salisbury! That was a blast! I had the opportunity to conduct that meeting, and I guess I did alright. It was a longer meeting than Specialized Training normally is, because we got to watch Meet the Mormons again! President wanted to show us a movie to celebrate Christmas, and so we watched the movie, thinking about some questions that he asked us to think about. Mostly about the effect we can have on people's lives. "What Is Possible For You?" was the last question. Everytime I watch that movie I want to go out and freaking change the world or something. My time will come, right? The quote, "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul," comes to find. Anyway, great movie! Our ward also provided an AWESOME lunch (like, they went all out. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the set up. We have the best ward). We also had Stake Correlation with President Jones and President Salisbury. It's fun to be in meetings with such amazing and spiritual men. You just learn TONS in an instant. After that we saw Sister M. with Brother T.! That was great. She is great! She has been reading "Preparing For the Holy Temple" and is excited to go! What other convert is like that? Man, I'm just so excited for her! Thursday ended kinda badly when Elder Brenchley got a HUGE headache that was SUPER painful during dinner with the H. family, so Brother H. drove us home and I made Elder Brenchley go to bed. He slept it off and we were good the next day!

On Friday we had an interesting lesson with a man, M., who has an interesting set of beliefs. I think he mostly aligns with the Jewish faith, because he doesn't believe in Jesus Christ or the New Testament, only the Old Testament, but he also doesn't believe in a Savior at all, coming or already has come. We had a good discussion with him but near the end it just started turning into him trying to bash us and convince us we were wrong. Apparently he hadn't read 2 Nephi. :) Interesting fellow! We left him with the challenge to pray to know if he is a child of God (because he didn't believe that either). Maybe someday his heart will be opened! We also had dinner with the Hands family that night! During the prayer Elder Brenchley said, "Please bless the Hands that prepared this food," and we all started to crack up. It was pretty funny. To end the night we had a lesson with G. about prophets. The lesson ran a little long so we told him we'd come back the next day and tell him how prophets are called. He wasn't there. GOSH DANG IT. "Do you want to astonish people? Keep your commitments." - President Salisbury.

Saturday we were able to see B. and J., some cute less-active kids. We shared #ASaviorIsBorn with them and committed them to come to church! B. did!! Hey, progress is progress. J. said he didn't want to come until his Grandpa (who he basically lives with) could come. Brother R. unfortunately is in the later stages of Kidney Cancer and it's incredibly hard for him to move, so he and his wife get home sacrament. I hope J. will start coming again. He's a good kid. We also saw Sister M. again! We brought Brother M., a recently married RM in our ward who is AWESOME. He's super techy and offered to fix B.'s internet for her! What a guy.

Saturday we also found out that I'll be staying in BV and Elder Brenchley will be leaving. That was crazy to see! Definitely didn't expect it.

We had a pretty good Sunday! We had a long lesson with J. and M. in the morning. The J.'s came with us. There are definitely some concerns that we are going to have to work through with them, but they still want us to teach them! It will definitely be a longer process than normal, but that's okay. We meet people where they are and help them along! Church was GREAT! B. came! Since her medication switch she's been feeling TONS better and is excited for her future in the church! It was the Ward Christmas Program too! Just icing on the cake. For dinner that night we ate at the F.'s, and they made a MASSIVE amount of food. Like, a ridiculous amount. See picture. It was SO GOOD though. Authentic Chilean food is DELICIOUS.

We had District Meeting Monday morning, and that was a really good meeting. We reviewed Chapter 10 of Preach My Gospel "Teaching Skills," particularly the points of Listening, Asking Questions, and Resolving Concerns. It was a really good meeting and the sisters brought a TON of candy and I ate waaaaaaay too much. Elder Brenchley said goodbye to a lot of people this day. Made a lot of rounds, took a lot of pictures. Tuesday was pretty much the same. Took a lot of pictures and visited a lot of members/investigators/former investigators to say goodbye.

Thank you all for reading this HUGE email. I don't know why it was so long this week. I hope you enjoy it! Have a great week everyone, and I will talk to you Monday!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson