The Covenant of Baptism and Father's Day!

Hello family and friends and everyone that I love! Another week has gone by! Here's some of my highlights:

On Monday we headed up to Hillsville to party with the other elders! We played some board games and had a good conversation. I like them a lot! It was a nice easy start to a good week.

That night we saw J&G! We taught them about the Word of Wisdom and Chastity... Wednesday was a fun day, because we got to start it off at D&D's house! They fed us breakfast and played some games with us. They are an awesome couple, and I love both of them. I really just want them to realize how full the Atonement really is. How it can help [everyone] overcome their individual and collective problems. They continue to be great!

Also on Wednesday, we had the chance to help a man named Ja. out, moving some furniture out of his apartments that he owns on Main Street. He needed two strapping young men come and lift the heavy stuff, so we were volunteered by JS., who works at a store below the apartments, also owned by Ja. He is a great guy, and we were able to see him again to finish helping him move some stuff on Friday. We actually had a good gospel discussion with him, chatted with him about agency and choices. It was actually really cool.

Friday we had District meeting! Everyone came down to the church in our area and we had a great time together. I taught on the power of the Book of Mormon, both in our own lives and in the lives of our investigators, and also talked about Chapter 11 of Preach my Gospel, which goes over how to help investigators make and keep covenants. We are really trying to "teach for commitment" as missionaries, because that's really the most important thing, to invite someone to do something, to come closer to their Savior.

That night was J.&G.'s baptismal interview (We taught them tithing and fasting somewhere before that, but I can't remember which day that was)! Elders Trujillo and Bingham came all the way down from Princeton to interview them. We were excited, and we only had to make G. 3 baptismal records, because we kept messing up. That's an accomplishment, if you ask me. :P

Saturday we had the baptism! It was fantastic! ... Elder Bean had the chance to baptize G., and Brother Wh. baptized J. The Spirit was strong, and I'm so excited for them to begin this journey of full fellowship in the church. They are an amazing couple, and I'm so proud to be able to call them my brother and sister in the church!

Sunday, Father's Day, was also great! Not a whole lot happened yesterday, because Brother Wh. was with his dad, but it was still fantastic. J. and G. were confirmed during Sacrament meeting, and Elder Bean got to confirm G.! The Spirit was also super strong, and Elder Bean gave G. a wonderful blessing.

That was my week! I hope your week was wonderful too! I love you all, and make this week the best ever!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

Elder Bean and I with the amazing members in Wytheville, VA!

Virginia festivities.

My journal pen has finally worn out. More ink!

Charity Never Faileth

Hello everyone! I hope your week has been amazing! Another week has gone by, and I have some highlights! Let's jump into it! 

On Tuesday, we started the day off in Pembroke, for Specialized Training with President and Sister Salisbury and our wonderful assistants. It was a wonderful meeting, centralizing on 3 main topics: 1) Forget about past mistakes. Repent and move on 2) The doctrine of The Atonement and 3) The Sabbath Day. All the district leaders got to get up and give a 5 minute portion about what their district is doing well. I don't know how well I did, but I felt the Spirit, so I guess that's all that matters. 

After the meeting, Elder Tebbs and I headed off to Hillsville for exchanges! That was a blast. We taught a couple really awesome lessons, and it seemed like their area is really doing great. I love those two elders for all the hard work they are putting into their area! The work is picking up.

Jump to Thursday, where we got to go do the Food Kitchen! It's a little weird to think that it was probably my second to last time serving the people there. I really like doing service there, even if staring at the food for an hour and a half without being able to touch it is a little hard. But that's okay! Having people thank me for the work I do makes it worth it. Seeing their faces light up as they actually get a warm, hot meal.

That night we got to go to the V's house for dinner! They graciously invited us over to eat with them. They are one of my favorite families in the ward. They are just so fun! Brother V has this sauce called "Insanity sauce" that he likes to give to unsuspecting people. I had already tried it weeks before, but we were having Taco Casserole, and I figured it was a nice fit to try it again!   WRONG.

I had forgotten how hot that stuff was. If you ever have the chance to try it, DO IT. So worth it, at least once. I'll never do it again though. So hot. Just had to throw that in there. It sticks out as one of the poignant events of the week.

Skipping to Saturday, we had the opportunity to teach J. and G. about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! They understand it all, accepted it all, and G. even bore his testimony about how he knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet. How awesome is that? Their baptismal interview is on Friday and their baptism will be held on Saturday evening! Pray for them! They still have some things to do before Friday, and I have complete confidence and faith that they can do it, but heavenly help is always appreciated.

Sunday was an interesting day. I've never had a day quite like it before. Luckily, church was great. It always is. I got to bless the Sacrament, which I haven't done in FOREVER. We had 3 pieces of bread and had to break it into AT LEAST 120 pieces. Some serious feeding the 5000 miracles happened yesterday. It was awesome. 

Brother Wh. teaches Gospel Principles during Sunday School, and that was great! We are on Chapter 30, Charity. We had a great conversation with the class there, and the Spirit was strong. I thought it meant that a happy, charitable day was ahead of us!

We really don't need to get into the details of it here, but maybe I'll share it with some of you someday. The reason it was interesting was because EVERYWHERE we went, all we found was hatred, hurt, and unkind words. Never in my life have I seen such an uncharitable attitude from some of the people we met. We ALSO saw the OTHER side of the coin, when we spent 3+ hours with someone who had been hurt by someone's unkindness and malevolence, who conveniently was not there at the time of our visit. I have a few things to say to about this.

Let's start with a scripture Moroni 7:

 44 If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity.

 45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

 46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity,ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

 47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day,it shall be well with him.

This is the Christian virtue of charity. The prophet Moroni clearly explains what this is and why we need it, and what the reward will be if we have it. There is something wrong in this world, when husbands and wives, parents and children, sons and daughters of God, can speak such vile things to each other and expect to be pronounced clean before the presence of Jehovah, "because I was right."

Let's go to the book of James, chapter 3:

 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

That's pretty straightforward language to me, I don't know about the rest of you. I also don't really know where I am going with this sermon, but let me tell you that I am angry with ANYONE who would abuse one of their divine brothers or sisters with horrible words. If you are guilty of this grievous offense (as I know I am at times, and I have to repent daily of it), I encourage you to repent and change. You will never become the person that God himself sees that you can become so as long as you continue in the wickedness of hurtful speech.

Sorry for my sermon there, but I am passionate about this subject. The things I listened to and heard about yesterday are inexcusable to everyone except maybe the devil. 

Thank you all for your continued support of me! I love you all and the Lord does too. Have a great week everyone! 

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

We hit our year mark together!

Dinner with Elder Tebbs and the wonderful Brother Wh!

Thank you mom! I know you have no idea what you just sent me :)

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

The great district!

A very full journal!

My friend, the great C!

Love the Virginia sunsets!

My good friends, C and S! getting married!

It's been one year! I'm officially an 'old' missionary. :)

Hello everyone! This is the last email I will send as a "young" missionary! MY YEAR MARK IS ON THURSDAY! How crazy is that!? So crazy.

So, you may wonder about the bonfire pictures and the shirt. On Wednesday, we helped R., our investigator, make sure he didn't burn down Wythe county! It was great! A tradition that missionaries seem to have everywhere is to burn a white shirt to celebrate your making it one year! I know, it's very weird. I figured that since my year mark was 8 days after this bonfire, I might as well burn the shirt now! So I did, and dang did it burn! It was awesome. 1 year down!

Thursday morning, we were back at the Food Kitchen again! What a great experience. Funnily enough this time, there was a less active daughter of an amazing member there helping us, so we got to have some good face time with her and invite her back to church. I don't think her re-conversion will be as immediate as some are, but any encouragement is good encouragement!

We had the chance that night to meet with C. and S.! They have made the decision to get married this Thursday, on the 4th! I'm really excited for them, and I hope that they have a long and happy life together. We got invited to their wedding on Thursday too! So we get the chance to see it. 

On Friday we had District Meeting, taught by myself. It was a really good meeting I think, and apparently my district got something out of it. That's pretty cool in and of itself! We talked about working hard, and sacrifice, and goal setting, etc. I had a rather long (and unplanned) discourse on fasting near the end of it, which apparently made the biggest difference in the ears of the people who were there! I even got quoted by Elder Bingham! "A 24 hour fast shows that your spirit wants something more than your body wants food." I don't even remember saying that, haha. #HankSmithLevel. I think I subconsciously stole the quote from Elder Nelson in his talk "Self-Mastery." 

After District Meeting and a nice Fajita at El Puerto, Elder Bingham and I headed up to Princeton for exchanges! I've discoursed in letters about how much I love Elder Bingham before, so I wont do it here, but he is pretty awesome. 

We had a great day together! On our way back up, we stopped by to see an investigator named M., who is in the Tazewell Elder's area in a rehabilitation center for a surgery he had recently. Elder Bingham has been working with this man for a year now (since his first area, Radford), and he is getting baptized here in a couple weeks! M. has an amazing story. He is taught by Elder Bingham and his trainee, and is even interviewed by President Salisbury for baptism. President has to go through some hoops for him, so the baptism is postponed 6 months. A few weeks later, M. suffers a major heart attack and goes into a coma. Shortly thereafter, Elder Bingham is transferred to the other side of the stake, thinking that M. will pass away quietly in his sleep.

But surprise! He wakes up! He has a bucket of health problems, but he's alive! Elder Bingham and M. are reunited, and President surprises Elder Bingham at interviews with the letter from the First Presidency saying to go ahead with the baptism. That was 4 months ago. After a handful of surgeries and recoveries, M. will be stepping into the waters of baptism in 3 or 4 weeks time. What a story!

Later that evening, we also had a chance to teach their investigator, Mi., who will be baptized this COMING Sunday. A more prepared man I have not met (except maybe D.) Mi. is amazing though, and will make a fine member of the church.

To end the evening, we taught a girl named C., who's been investigating for a little over a year now. Funnily enough (considering that morning) she had some questions about fasting! We had a great lesson with her, and she is planning to fast next fast sunday with the rest of the church. How solid of an investigator is that? Supa solid.

Saturday was great too! Just a funny tracting experience Bingham and I had. We were walking around this trailer park, and out of the corner of our eyes, we noticed this woman glaring at us and watching us at one of the windows. In true Christlike Spirit, Elder Bingham looks over, makes eye contact, and waves. I don't think I've ever seen anyone move away from a window faster. Silly people.

 Back in Wytheville, Elder Bean and I decided to go walking to contact a referral we had gotten some time ago. P., one of our Recent Converts, had given us this referral, and we were waiting for her go ahead to go contact him. Unfortunately, she had some things come up in her life and moved away temporarily. So we went to contact him ourselves. It was great! We set up an appointment for tomorrow, and can feel some really good things in the works with him.

About an hour later, we were walking along a road we walk a lot, and these two guys shout from across the road to stop so they can ask us a few questions. I was a bit like Laman and Lemuel, "Oh, this'll be good." but it turned out to be a great conversation! We got these guys' numbers and had a great talk with them about the bible and book of mormon. They had really never heard of the church before, so we were able to invite them to learn more, and will be meeting with them this week! Sweetness. The Lord provides!

At dinner that evening, we were at a returning less-active's (S.) apartment with her mom and her mom's boyfriend. S. and I have become pretty good buds over the last 6 months, and she told me that she is ready to quit smoking. We had a smoking lesson with her, took her ashtrays and the rest of her cigarettes, and told her to call us if she ever had the urge. Or just to call someone. Or just to distract herself. Something. Just get away from it. She is committed, and I believe that she can do it! She is getting sealed to her fiance next year, and really wants to be ready for that experience.

Sunday was a great day, albeit a little disappointing. No investigators at church AGAIN. Boo. But that's okay! Our heads are high, and our faith is full. We'll get these people to church eventually.

It was also Ward Conference yesterday, so we got to have a big sacrament meeting with all our Stake Leaders. I got to chat with President A., our Stake President, a little. He is an awesome guy. I like him a lot. We also had the Linger Longer after church, with some supa healthy salads and such. They were awesome! The Ceaser salad was one of my favorites. Mmmm. Probably because of the bacon. 

We saw a few people after that, had a good lesson with most of them, and ended the day with D. and D. at their house. Their family, D. really, has changed my life. I'm so blessed to have known him and be associated with him. The Lord truly blessed me by letting me be the one that would see him through his first covenant with The Lord.

I love you all! I hope you make this the best week ever, and see the miracles that The Lord has placed in your life! Have a great week, and I'll talk to you all next week!

Love,
Elder Brax Johnson