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

First Week of the New Transfer!

Hello family and friends!

This week has been great! Let's jump into the highlights:

On Thursday, I took Elder Garrett up to Princeton to meet the van that would take him to transfers. It was really hard to say goodbye to him. Over the last 6 months, he's become a dear friend, and I am really grateful to have had the chance to know him. He's a great guy. Good luck in whatever you choose to do Z!

Elder Sawyer is here! It is really weird to have him back around me. I haven't seen him for forever! He is still the great, big teddy bear that I remember, and he is ready to work hard and turn Hillsville into a thriving center of the church! I know that he can! They had an amazing week this week, which is already showing the fruits of their commitment. 

That night we had dinner at the V.'s house! Brother V. likes to take the missionaries out after we eat dinner with him, and so he took us to see a few people!

The first was a man named T. He had met with missionaries in the past, and adores the church. He's an older man, [who watches] religious things on TV. He's watched a ton of the BYU channel, and when we went over there, he basically taught us about the Restoration! He taught things that I didn't even know! How crazy is that? He is an awesome guy. We gave him CDs from last General Conference, and told him we'd be back in a couple weeks to see what he learned and how he liked them. I'll bet he'll have some more insights for us!

We also went and saw a man that I had never met before, R. He's a member of the church that hasn't been to church in YEARS, but still likes us. He had a really energetic dog that absolutely loved to play fetch. It was kinda funny. If you didn't pick up the object, she would start to nudge it with her nose or bark at you. Silly dog. It was funny.

Friday morning was pretty fun! There was a wedding at the church for two new move ins to the ward in the other elder's area. We got invited, and so we got to see them exchange vows, drop the ring, take pictures, etc. It was great! I wish them a long life of happiness together. :)

We also got invited to a Mennonite dinner on Friday, so we went! I had never really been around Mennonite's before, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. But man, if there is anything I know, it's that they can COOK! That food was so good. I wanted a crockpot full of it. It was awesome!

Friday night was really cool. Elder F. was ordained and elder and set apart as a missionary, and we were able to see it happen! We even got to participate! How cool is that? So cool! He is a great young man, and I wish him the best as he goes and serves! He will be great. Good luck Elder F.!

Saturday we had a really cool experience. Brother M. (a less active in the ward) had his mom, sister, and daughter out from Utah for the week, and they invited us, and J.'s (Bro. M.'s girlfriend) whole family over for a party of sorts! It was awesome! With 20 or 30 people there, Bro. M. goes and gets 40 or 50 balloons for this party. He gives us each a few balloons and has us right a prayer on them. We all gathered around in the field in a circle, holding on to our balloons, sung a song, had a prayer, and released the balloons up to heaven. Total Light of Christ meeting. The Spirit was strong. It was awesome. 

Sunday was a great day, as usual! Unfortunately, no one came to Sacrament meeting, which was a real bummer. We were pretty disappointed. We did have a few people say they would come next week though! Doubling up our faith and hoping they come!

Yesterday, for Pday, we hung out with the Hillsville elders most of the day. Played some tennis, cards, made some homemade donuts, etc. Really just took it easy for a while. It was nice. After pday ended, we went to see the K.'s! Hadn't seen them for a bit, so we caught up and talked for a while. It was a nice end to an easy day.

Thank you all so much for your support! I am the man I am today because of all the great people in my life. I love you all, and make this week the best week ever!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

Elder Garrett's cake. :)

Our last hurrah with Elder Garrett!

Elder Bean and the very mobile kitten.

That's Elder Bingham in there. Can you see him?

Saying goodbye to my good friend Elder Garrett!

Mom said to eat healthy. :)

My amazing turtle shell!

Elder F., on his way to serve!

The great Elder Bean!

Released balloons at our prayer meeting.

Homemade donuts. MMMMMMMMMMMMMM....

Seriously. How big is the chicken?

Transfer Week! and "Love on Them" :)

Hello friends and family! I left my planner at home again (I do that a lot apparently) so I don't have too much to write this week. My memory isn't the best, haha!

The big news of the week: I am staying for a 5th transfer in Wytheville! I am finishing Elder Bean's training up and then I'm guessing I will be leaving. It will be time though. I'll have spent almost a third of my mission here! Good thing I LOVE this place!

Last Tuesday (8 days ago) we had Zone Conference with President and Sister Salisbury, and the Assistants! I took a lot of notes! We separated at one point for a bit, the sisters with Sister Salisbury and the elders with President, and we had kind of a "man talk." It was really funny to see how awkward some people still are with having that conversation. It needed to be said though!

I went on exchanges to Hillsville with Elder Tebbs that day! His new companion, coming tomorrow, is Elder Sawyer, my old companion! They are going to work until they drop, I know it! It will explode! I can feel it. Elder Tebbs and Elder Sawyer are awesome elders. I will miss Elder Garrett! Oh - AND! Sisters are returning to Hillville! Yes! They are the greatest missionaries!

On Thursday I remember we went to the Food Kitchen again! We had literally just enough for everyone to eat and all the volunteers to eat a little bit too. It was a loaves and fishes miracle, I swear, because it did NOT look like we were going to have enough! I love all the people that come down there. It's a testimony builder to me that we are all God's children, and some people might not be "normal" in the eyes of the world, but I know that God loves them just the same. It reminds me of the quote I heard once, "In the Kingdom of God, there are no Second Class Citizens."

On Sunday, D. was confirmed! I got to stand in the circle, and it was an amazing experience! He now has the Holy Ghost with him, and boy has it been teaching him these past couple days! He is devouring the Book of Mormon! In only two months of reading, he is already done with 2 Nephi! 

We had a great time after church with Brother Wh. too! We got the chance to go see R. and M. again, investigators who we've been seeing for quite a while now. They feel a bit judged at their church, and R. is a mountain man, so they really don't like going there. They love Brother Wh. and us though, and so we committed them to come to our church on Sunday and see how they like it! We feel that everyone is going to "love on them" (Virginian expression) and make them feel right at home. It will be great!

We also, later that night, went over to the F.'s house! A., their son, is leaving on a church service mission to Palmyra on Saturday, and so they threw a going away party for him. It was awesome! Tons of members came to give him their wishes. He'll be a great missionary! On his mission he gets to work in the TEMPLE one day a week. Boo. I don't get to do that! Lucky son of a gun. :P

Those are really the highlights of the week that I can remember. Thank you all for your support of me and for reading this really long letter. Have a great week, and make it the best one ever!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

The pictures below are to show you how beautiful Virginia is. Love me some Virginia sunsets and rainstorms! Enjoy!

Selfie for Mom!

Dramatic photo of a barn. :)

Baptism, Mother's Day Call, and Turtles

Hello family and friends (for all of you reading this fall into one of these categories)! I hope you're week was as amazing as mine was!

So, I left my planner at home, so I don't have any notes on me. I'll do my best to remember some other highlights of the week, but bear with me!

For P-day last week we went spelunking again! It's probably the last time we will go, because the cave was SO WET. Just completely soaked from all the rain. It was really fun to show Elder Bean and Tebbs around though! Lots of fun memories inside that cave. We've had a good time for a couple P-days!

Wednesday morning was District Meeting! We did a review of what we learned in Zone Meeting, which was the Friday before. It was a fun meeting! We got to be outside and smell the fresh air and get all sorts of allergies. Woo hoo! 

After District Meeting, Elder Garrett and I went on another exchange! He is great! I love Elder Garrett. During our time in Hillsville together, we participated in a street meeting thing called National Day of Prayer! A whole bunch of people gathered around the old courthouse in Hillsville and we all bowed our heads while ministers from various different churches came and prayed for specific people/things. Military, First responders, families, the nation, etc. It was awesome to see all different denominations come together to offer up a prayer to our Father In Heaven.

Can't really remember up until the weekend.... darn.

Sunday was a FANTASTIC DAY. Probably one of the best days you can have. It started off with a great church meeting, and we had a baptism! D. was baptized yesterday. It's so amazing to me to see and ponder about the 46 years that The Lord has been preparing him for those 10 seconds. We don't make a lot of fanfare about the baptismal ordinance. It's a very sacred, personal time of making covenants with our Father in Heaven. Those 10 seconds and a willing heart are all it takes to change a life. Maybe I should write a book on baptism called "The 10 Seconds" or "The Most Important 10 Seconds" or something like that. I bet it'd be a bestseller!

Anyway! I'm so proud to have had the chance to talk and teach D. over these last 5 months. I'm so grateful to The Lord for giving me this opportunity! He really is prepared. I think he will do amazing things in the church. I'm excited to see where his life will take him now! I'm so proud to call him my friend, and especially my brother in the Lord.

After Church, the V. family asked us to come and share their lunch with them! They also so generously offered the use of their home to let us call our family. We had a great time with them! Ate a lot of pizza, made some funky Ice Cream with a Yonana machine (I don't really understand either) and laughed a lot. I love that family! 

The Skype call was AMAZING! SHOUT OUT TO MY MOM! Happy Mother's Day!

Thank you all for your love and support of me. If there is anything a mission has taught me, it's how much I love and appreciate my family and friends. So whether I talked to you last night or not, thank you for your love and support!

This morning we were with the V. family AGAIN! Brother V. took us to his Brother in law's pond to go turtle hunting! Apparently Snapping Turtles are a vermin out here that eat all the fish and the owners want them GONE. So now there are less turtles in there than there were this morning! :D Kyle is getting his present after all! :P

Thank you again for all your support! I know this work is part of our Father in Heaven's plan! I know The Church of Jesus Christ is Christ's church again restored on the Earth, and I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. Have an amazing week everyone! Make it the best ever!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

A Pineapple, Crystal Hunting, "Again", and Exchanges!

Hello friends and family!

I hope you all are well on this fine day! We had another exciting and awesome week! Let's jump into it! 

Monday morning we got a call, right before we're about to leave for emailing. Our Relief Society President calls us and tells us that we're her last resort for helping with the Food Kitchen that morning, because everyone else she called couldn't come, and the person who was supposed to come couldn't either. Being eager to help the ward members in any way we can, we readily accepted! It was awesome! We got to meet a whole bunch of new people that don't usually work the Thursdays that we work at the Food Kitchen, and got to talk about the gospel with them and introduce ourselves. It was awesome.

Later we spent the day with R! He had told us about a cool rock quarry on his property in the northern part of the county. We headed up there with him after he got off from work with the intent to find some diamond looking crystals he had told us about! How fun, right? Unfortunately our crystal count was a goose-egg, but now we know where they are! We'll get rich yet!

Tuesday was interesting. We had planned to go see H. at her office (as usual on Tuesdays), so we headed over there after lunch! Lo and behold, her car wasn't there. Usually in that situation we would just go to our backup, but for whatever reason I just started driving toward her house. As fate would have it, there is her car, sitting in her driveway. We go up to the door, she lets us in, and we just talked. She had been having some rough experiences the past couple days, so we just opened up the scriptures and had a great conversation. It's amazing how the Lord knows everyone's situation and what they need at that time. She's such a strong and awesome woman.

That night we stopped by D. and D.'s house for the last appointment! His baptism is coming up, and his baptismal interview was on Friday (see later in the letter), so we were really just getting him prepared for the interview and baptism in general. He did great, as he always does, and even taught us a little bit. Can somebody say "elect"? I can. :D

The highlight of Wednesday was seeing R. (again). It was his 56th birthday, and we wanted to make it special. We didn't want to get him anything sugary to make his blood sugar rise. But we didn't want it to be boring either ("Here's a carrot!" Yeah, thanks a lot.) So we pondered a little bit, and bought him a pineapple! He said it was the first pineapple he'd ever gotten as a birthday present. How awesome, right? Pineapples make surprisingly good substitutes for birthday cakes. 

Thursday things picked up again, starting off with the Food Kitchen (yeah, again)! It was great, as it always is. Had a great conversation about missionaries with a couple people there, and I think that some of them are honestly interested! That's what service is all about. Helping people and getting your name out there to find these sons and daughters of God. 

We saw D. and D. AGAIN (Lots of 'agains' in this letter). This time was the review of everything we had taught. We went through the baptismal interview questions and quickly reviewed the lessons. He passed with flying colors, and was all ready for Friday!

Speaking of Friday! That morning we had Zone Meeting up in Bluefield! What a fun time. We learned a lot, taught a lot, and had a lot of fun! I love our zone. Nicknamed "Bluefield zion" it really does seem like the promised land. Funnily enough, the Bluefield Zone is entirely elders. Not a sister in sight! I'm still a little bitter about that, so we'll end this paragraph before I rant any more.

Zone Leader exchanges were on Friday as well! Elder Bean went up to Princeton with Elder Bingham and Elder Labrum (Who is staying with them due to some unfortunate circumstances), and Elder Trujillo and I partied down in Wytheville! Elder Trujillo is from Fruit Heights, Utah, and came out on his mission with Elder Larson! (A long, long time ago) He is a great guy.

One of the first things we did was D.'s interview! He passed with flying colors, and now Elder Trujillo is as excited as we are for his baptism. May 10, 2015. Mother's Day! Save the date! What an amazing day it will be.

Skip to Sunday! After an awesome fast and testimony meeting (and the rest of it of course), we headed out with Brother Wh.! Our first stop was to C.'s trailer, where he, S., J., and J.'s boyfriend G. had gathered! (Along with J. and G.'s little newborn E., can't forget him) We had a good lesson with them, and answered some gospel questions, and joked around for a little bit. I also took some good-natured abuse from everyone for saying a prayer and "rushing us out" as Brother Wh. jokingly said. Sometimes we stay too long at people's houses that we are supposed to when we are out with Brother Wh., and so to make our time most effective, I've been trying to keep us a little more on track. I learned that by doing so I get a little resistance. Oh well. Being a missionary never was supposed to be easy!

After them, we went and saw B., who I hadn't seen in ages! Brother Wh. and I both agree that B. will eventually join the church, once "the lightbulb goes off in his headed." He's just scared right now. Too many hours spent watching Sister Wives. One day though! We'll watch and pray and wait for it.

We ended the day at D. and D.'s (the last again). They fed us an awesome dinner of Salmon Cakes, Stuffed Mushrooms, and Cheesy Broccoli! A true Southern dish. What I love most about D. and D. is how naturally the conversation flows to the gospel. It just happens, without any pushing on our part! We had a fun conversation with them about early Church History and stories from that era. I think all 5 of us (D., D., Wh., Elder Bean, and I) went away learning something new. I love this church and all its history. No matter what nay sayers and anti-seekers say, this church will always stand, unmarred by its Iscariots. 

Didn't mean to start sermonizing! It happens more and more the longer I'm out, haha.

Well, today marks 11 months down! The time moves too fast. This time next year I'll be packing up. I want you all to know how much this mission means to me, and how grateful I am to the Lord for choosing me to be a laborer. I'm serving with all my heart, might, mind and strength, and I know that because of faith, I am seeing these miracles.

I love you all! Make this week the best week ever! Have a great Mother's day next week!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

The Quarry!

Not a crystal, but still fun!

The rolling hills of Virginia.

A pineapple present for one of my favorite people!

Happy Birthday R.!

The mower man.

The front!

The back (for Emmers!)