A Cold Week of Teaching, and Unexpected Snow Storms!

Hello everyone! Happy belated Valentine's Day! Happy President's Day! Happy other random holiday in February! :) We had a pretty great week this week! Saw a lot of awesome things.

On Monday, we were able to teach a less-active member, L., and his girlfriend K. They had been homeless for a time, but they finally got another trailer, in the sister's area! We talked with the sisters about how to go about the switch, and they asked us to go over there one time, teach them a lesson, invite K. to learn, and then hand them off to the sisters. That's what we did, and K. is now on date for baptism! We ended the night by getting ready for our 6 appointments on Tuesday! 

AND THEN IT SNOWED ALL DAY AND WE COULDN'T DO ANYTHING BECAUSE IT WASN'T SAFE TO DRIVE! What the heck nature. We were so excited for Tuesday. Freaking snow, man! We thankfully rescheduled all our appointments (or at least most of them) to a different day, but we were so bummed out. Brother C. did come rescue us that evening after we dug ourselves out, and he took us out to see a few people. We gave a blessing to Sister J., in the sister's area, and invited her to the Friday Valentine's Day Activity at the church, and went and visited his friends, T. and J. and their kids. T. lost her dad a month or so ago, and we went to drop off a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. Hopefully she reads it! We'll have to go follow-up here pretty soon. So, in the end, Tuesday wasn't a total bust, but we were still super mad.

And then the cold hit after the storm. Oh. My. Goodness. It was so cold on Wednesday!! And it only got worse as the week went on. We thought we were tough enough and had the brilliant idea to go walking! Bad idea. Very bad idea. we spent close to 2 hours outside and it was HORRIBLE. We were frozen. That evening though, after we ran inside to get warm (hiding in CVS Pharmacy for a few minutes to warm up may have been part of recovery), President H. came to pick us up to take us to a few lessons. He took us out to dinner at Fazoli's first, because he's awesome, and then we went to see V. and P.! Unfortunately, P. was in bed, having just come back from Dialysis, so she didn't get to participate in the lesson, but V. did! We had a really good Restoration lesson with him and set him on date for April 2nd! Yay! He said he's willing to "try again." So here's hoping! We believe in miracles! We also saw Sister D. with President H. on Wednesday. We taught her the Restoration, and committed her to come to church! Stuff started coming back to her, and she is on FIRE! We ended the night with C, C. & D. We answered some of C.'s questions about the Book of Mormon and the Bible, and it was great! We are praying for miracles from them.

On Thursday I finished the Book of Mormon! Woo hoo! I love the Book of Mormon. Can I just bear my testimony on that book real quick? The Book of Mormon changed my life. I love it!

Alrighty, now let's keep going. :D We taught L. on Thursday! We taught him Missionary Work and Service. He is so ready to get baptized. It's going to be awesome! March 5th is the big date. Everyone be excited! We were also able to teach a neat lady named C. on Thursday! She's a really funny lady who they started teaching a month or two ago, but because of her schedule she wasn't able to meet until now! She invited her friend M. over and we taught them the Restoration. M. wasn't super interested, but we still had a great conversation! C. agreed to be baptized when she knows it is true! Next lesson we'll have a specific date for her, haha.

We started Friday off with a great District Meeting, taught by the one and only Elder Carter, our District Leader. We had a really great meeting about putting all your Heart, Might, Mind, and Strength into the work. We also taught L. again! This time we brought Brother H. and taught about Priesthood quorums, Teaching & Learning in the church, and Enduring to the end. That evening, the ward had the Valentine's dance. We were invited at the beginning to eat some food, and we were about to leave, but C. came! We were with him for a little while, waiting for his dad to come, but unfortunately C. couldn't make it, so we put C. in with the teenagers who were babysitting the little kids, and ran off to our lesson with W. That actually went really really well! We taught about the importance of the Book of Mormon, and set him on date for April 2nd! After that we rushed back to the church because we felt bad for leaving little C. alone without knowing anybody, and ended the night by teaching him about prayer and committing him to pray every day. He's a great kid.

On Sunday we had a wonderful Sacrament Meeting! L. and D. also came, making it SUPER AWESOME! I was so happy they were able to attend. Our youth speaker, T., spoke about his experience doing hard things at the Hill Cumorah Pageant, and then Sister H. spoke on the importance of the temple. I can't wait to go back, I'll tell you what! Brother F. was the closing speaker with an awesome talk about his personal experiences with the temple. It was a powerful testimony! We took L. into the Family History center right after church ended, and had a cool little family history lesson where he actually found some ancestors of his to take to the temple soon! We are planning on getting him to the temple within 30 days of his baptism! We ended the night with President H., going to see D. and teach her the Plan of Salvation! She really wants to quit smoking and get to the temple. We know it's possible, and so does she.

That was my week! I love you all! Thank you all for your support of me! Have a wonderful week!!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

Shout out to my cousin and Brother Kyle!

Baby it's cold outside!!!

Creepy old abandoned church

Elder Bean and I at Zone Meeting!

More snow! Boooo

More snow...

Beautiful West Virginia!

A Week's Worth of Miracles

Hello friends and family! I hope your week has been as good as ours was! We saw some serious miracles this week, it was awesome! We are also set up for a slam-dunk of a week this week, with almost 10 appointments set up! I love it here in Fairmont. :) Here is a run down of this past week:

On Monday we went and saw the referrals that we contacted last Sunday, W., to teach him a little more. It just so happened that his wife, B., was there too! We were able to teach them both as a family and invite them to be baptized. It was a powerful lesson, and they are some really awesome and humble people who are ready for the gospel. We are seeing them this Wednesday, where we will invite them to be baptized on a specific date, and it's going to be great!

We were able to find two more new investigators on Tuesday! V.&P. have investigated before, but nothing had ever really gone anywhere. We talked to them on Tuesday and they told us that they feel that the Book of Mormon is true. Probably the reason why nothing ever went anywhere is because missionaries have been too afraid to ask them to do hard things. Our next appointment with them we are going to invite them to do some changing (repenting) and invite them to "walk with us" into the true church. I also had the chance on Tuesday to meet P., a man who has been investigating for a while who is slowly but surely progressing! He is awesome. He works for the FBI and has a sweet New York/Italian accent.

On Wednesdays we do service at a place called The Soup Opera, a kind of Salvation Army-esque food kitchen where we serve less-fortunate people a hot meal. I got to meet everyone that we work with there, and they are all HILARIOUS. We have a good time, and it always feels good to give service to people who can't provide for themselves. We were also able to see P. on Wednesday! We taught him about the covenant that he will make when he is baptized, and during the closing prayer, he actually prayed that he will be able to be baptized on his date! It was awesome. He is slowly recovering, but he has a will of Iron! We also were able to teach the C.'s, pretty much the most solid family ever, Tuesday night. It's amazing to me how much they really want to be baptized. C. wasn't able to come on Sunday, but 16 year old C. came all by himself to church! It was great. I was so proud of him. He even talked about serving a mission in a couple years after I testified to what a great and life changing experience it is. We are praying mightily for a miracle to happen with them so that their unique situation can be resolved and they can enter into the waters of baptism. I also made some bomb.com chili for like $6 on Wednesday night, too. That's now like my go-to meal haha.

Thursday night we were able to pick up another new investigator just by talking to him on the street, as well as find a less-active member, D., who wants to come back to church! It's amazing what success you can find when you just open your eyes and look for the possibilities. We have appointments with both of these wonderful people this week. 

Friday was Zone Meeting! The first Zone Meeting since JUNE that I got to sit with everyone else, and it was WONDERFUL. I enjoyed every second of it. I also got to see a TON of people that I love up there! We have an AWESOME zone! Elder Bean, who I trained, is in our zone and I got to see him! As is Elders Vai and Tunnell, who were in my zone in BV for a little while. Elder Millard, one of my best friends, is my zone leader, and even the Assistants, Elder Williams and Elder Jacklin, were there! It was a great day. We learned about teaching skills especially for beginning teaching investigators and less-actives. We got to role-play a little bit on "How to Begin Teaching" which was a lot of fun.

Saturday we saw P. and the C's again! D. was with the C.' this time, too! We taught P. about prayer and the proper method of it, and we restarted the lessons for CCD (hah) so C.'s son in case you forgot) can get caught up. He had a TON of questions about the Book of Mormon, and it was awesome! We didn't even get a chance to answer them all because it got too late, haha. We're going back tomorrow to answer the rest. 

The Sabbath was a wonderful day! 3 nice families fed us! I think that kinda defeated the purpose of Fast Sunday, but it was still super nice of them! Brother & Sister F., whom we take the sacrament to, gave us some awesome ribs, the M.'s gave us lasagna, and the H.'s made some awesome stuffed shells. People take real good care of us here. We also met the P.'s, a less-active family who run their own embroidery company. It's pretty sweet! They are planning on being at church on Sunday! 

This area is great. Miracles are pouring forth! Thank you all for your support of me. Huge shout out to my best friend Ryan who completed his two year service this past week. Love you buddy!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

Fairmont, WV

Fairmont, WV

Hello Mother!

My Journal Cover

#JSquad #FairmontOnFire

Hello everyone! After seven and a half months, I am out of BV and back in good ol' West Virginia! I LOVE it here! It's awesome. If seven and a half months taught me anything, it was how to work effectively with whatever you have, and now that I actually have big (ger) area, we are ROCKING it! Fairmont is going to EXPLODE with the work here, I can feel it. It's just waiting, hence the hashtag in the title, #FairmontOnFire, because it's going to be on FIRE before the end of this transfer.

I'm here with Elder Jolley, who is fantastic! We are having a lot of fun together. He's from Idaho Falls, Idaho, he's been out around Four and a half months, I'm his second companion, and he's one heck of a worker! He really enjoys learning about how to do things differently and different perspectives, which I think really helps the Fairmont area. We've already tried some cool new things, and seen some awesome success because of it! 

My last day in Buena Vista last Wednesday was hard, it kind of sunk in finally how much BV meant to me and how much I loved it and all the people there. I really did! Buena Vista changed my life, and I enjoyed every second of it there, even the hard parts. I can hardly believe that I actually spent seven and a half months there! It was all a blur, a wonderful, amazing, blessing filled blur! 

Brother A. took us out to The Original Italian Restaurant on Wednesday for dinner, so that I could say goodbye. I also got to say goodbye to so many good friends including:  B. and D., B.D; Brother A., Brother T and A, B.P., the Ca. family, the Lo. family, Sister Bu., the An. family, The Ba. family and the Bo. family!, the Ca. and Ut. family, my other Ca. family and the Cl. family, the Fl. family, the Fue. family, the Fur. family, the Go. family, the Ha. family, The Hi. family, the Ho. family, the Hu. family, the Ja., family, the Jo. family, the La. family, the Mi. family, the Mo. family, the Po., family, the Se. family, the Shi., family, the Th. family., the Tr. family, and the Wh. and the Ta. families!!!  All these pictures are forthcoming*. :) I'm sorry if I missed anyone! I love you all! 

I miss them, but I'm excited to be here. 

With all the packing and writing stuff and getting ready, I didn't get to bed on Wednesday until around 1, then I got up at 3:00! It was a nice two hours of sleep, haha. 4:30 in the morning was my last goodbye with Elder French and Elder Harris, the YSA Elders. We snuck into their apartment and woke them up so I could say goodbye. I also wrote Elder French a letter and put it on his desk. I'll miss him a ton. 

Most of the day was spent in a van/car driving! I rode with Elder Bingham and Elder Williams to Blacksburg in a Jeep Compass that the church is selling, and then there we picked up Elder Price and Elder Lopez, who are HILARIOUS. We drove with all 5 of us up to Charleston. The Charleston Depot was great (We aren't supposed to have transfer meetings anymore, so we don't, but Charleston is still the place where we switch luggage around, have a little message, and then head out, so we call in the Depot now, haha)! I got to see a lot of my buddies and have some fun there. 

On the train ride to Clarksburg (one 15 passenger van towing a little uHaul trailer) the van broke down a couple times! Gotta love those West Virginian hills! We finally made it to Clarksburg after two break downs, and eating lunch at this cool little place called The Custard Stand in a TINY town called Sutton, WV. They had good chili dogs though. That was a great way to reintroduce me to WV, a good old fashioned Chili Dog. It had been too long! :P In Clarksburg, I got to see Elder Millard, one of my best friends, who is now my ZONE LEADER! Woo hoo! That will be a party. They call and I call every once in a while just to chat with them because they are awesome. Finally got to Flatwoods and met Elder Jolley! Like I said before, he's awesome. I also got to meet my District Leader, Elder Carter, and his companion, Elder Furrows. We are in a district together with the Fairmont Sisters, Sister Kirkby and Sister Marsh, who are the Sister Training Leaders, so I knew them from my time at MLC. I also got to see Sister Robinson and say hi to her! I went to high school with her, so that was fun. This is a great zone! 

On Friday Elder Jolley took me to meet some cool people! We got to meet R., a member who needs some help staying active sometimes, so we go over once a week or so and share a message with him and help him along his path to the kingdom. He's a really funny, older guy who LOVES Mormon Messages, so that's normally what we watch with him, haha. We also had dinner with the N.  family! C. N. got back from a mission around 7 months ago, and her sister O., who is an awesome less-active with a little boy, made us "Buffalo Mac & Cheese," which is basically Mac & Cheese with hot sauce in it, and it was actually really good, haha! It was like, baked or something, which just made it awesome. C.'s boyfriend, B., from Morgantown who goes to the YSA ward, was there too, along with their non-member friend N.! We tried to teach him, but he didn't seem too interested. We got his number and told him we'd call him, which seemed to be a good compromise for him, haha.

Saturday I got to meet L., an AWESOME man who was going to get baptized a couple weeks ago, but his White Blood Cell count was "critical" so they immediately told him he couldn't go outside or be near people. :( Luckily though, it's gone back up, and now it's just "low" instead of "critical" so now he is getting healthier, woo hoo! He talks a TON, so you really have to kind of guide the lesson, but he is converted and ready for baptism. We went over the baptismal interview questions with him, and he's ready! He didn't come to church yesterday because his health is preventing him, but he really really wants to come this week and thinks that he'll be up for it. 

We took our Ward Mission Leader, Brother H., over there with us. He did a great job teaching, too. I also go too meet the T. family, some great members who struggle getting to church on time, and we also went and saw R. with Brother H. He is a less-active member who pastors at other churches now. We had a really good conversation with him about some common protestant questions about our church, like how the bible says no one has seen God (Moses, Stephen, John), Priesthood restrictions (Levites), etc. Stuff like that. It felt really good to be able to expound the scriptures to and reason with someone again. I haven't done that for a long time. It's not Contention, but a tension of views that makes for a good discussion. :)

Sunday was great! I got to meet the ward, who are all AWESOME! We especially have a great Bishop, Bishop B. He's awesome. He's only been Bishop for 3ish months now, but he does a really good job, and I think he knows where he wants to take the ward in the future. We get the opportunity on Sundays to go and take the sacrament to the F. family! They served a mission in Oakland, CA about a decade ago, but now they are homebound because of her declining health, so we take them the sacrament. He made some really good steak for lunch. They are great and super nice! 

We contacted a media referral that we received on Sunday night, too! W. requested a Book of Mormon. We went over there, he answered the door right away, so we started teaching him! Ended up having a really quick, good lesson about the Book of Mormon and a really brief overview of the Restoration, committed him to read the Introduction of the Book of Mormon, and he invited us back the next day (today)! It should be a good lesson today, we're excited. 

Also on Sunday I got to meet C., his girlfriend D., and his son C. D. is a less-active returning member, and C. and C. are investigators. They are the BEST. C. is HILARIOUS and they are SO CLOSE to baptism. The only thing holding them back is getting married, which is a more complicated situation I hear than we wish it was, but we believe in miracles in this church, and so help me I will see them enter the waters of baptism before I'm done here! We taught them the law of tithing last night, which they committed wholeheartedly to live by, because they are awesome. Something else I love about C. is he isn't afraid to ask questions. He really wants to know and understand the gospel, and so he is not afraid to let you know what he is thinking, and it is GREAT. In the middle of tithing, he goes, "So where does the money go?" The way he said it could have been construed as "attacking" or something, but he just asks because he really wants to know. We explained it and it made perfect sense to him and he is excited to live it after his baptism! They are awesome.

So that was the last 5 days, haha! I love it here in Fairmont, it is going to be a great place that I will always remember, I know it! Thank you all for reading this, I love you all and thank you for your support. Have a GREAT WEEK!

Also a shoutout to my best friend who completes his two-year service in 5 days. You are the best Ryan!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

Also, shoutout to Elder Hugentobler!

*Note from Braxton's mom:

I have all the photos of the wonderful BV families, but since I don't have permission from each family to post them on the web, I will hold on to them for him. If you would like a copy, just email Braxton and he will let me know. I would be happy to send it to you! His email is: johnson.braxton@myldsmail.net

Greetings from the transfer train. Elder Johnson and Elder Johnson

Hi MOM! You are the best!

We got even.

Hahahahaha.

My amazing friend Elder French!

Sporting a new haircut!

Handsome Elders. :)

The amazing BV zone!

The snow fort!

The amazing Elder Jolley!

Farewell Zion, I'm Facing My Tent Toward Babylon!

Farewell Zion (Buena Vista)

Hello everyone! As you can probably see, I am leaving Buena Vista! After 7 1/2 months, I am heading back to West Virginia, to a city called Fairmont! It is about 15 minutes away from Morgantown, WV, which happens to house West Virginia University, commonly known in our mission as Babylon! So, hence my title, I'm facing Babylon! I'll be with Elder Jolley, a relatively new missionary who's been in Fairmont his whole mission so far. 

I don't have a lot of time, and not a whole lot happened this week, so sorry if this is short!

We had a ton of exchanges this week! It started on Tuesday, when I was with Elder Curtis here in Buena Vista. We had a great time! Elder Curtis is from Mesa, AZ, and he is AWESOME. He's been out for 3 months now, but he is a really mature, great guy. He broke both his legs two summers ago, which halted him from coming on a mission for 4 months while he recovered. We had a blast together! 

We met back up with Elder Wasden and Elder Hugentobler on Wednesday for a Worldwide Missionary Broadcast. The theme was "We teach repentance and baptize converts." We also got to hear from some amazing people! Specifically Elder Andersen and Elder Bednar were my favorites, but we also got to hear from Sister Oscarson, Elder Clayton, and Elder Nielson. It was fantastic! They talked a lot about working with Less-Active and Part Member Families. I am excited to use my new gained knowledge to move forward the work! Right after that, Elder Wasden and I parted ways again to go on an exchange with the Covington Tripanionship Elders, Elder Norman, Goold, and Higgins! I was with Elder Higgins down here in BV. He's a great guy, and we had a lot of fun together. 

On Thursday, we received a text from President Salisbury about the impending storm. He wanted to make sure we were all safe and ready, because we weren't sure exactly how big the storm was actually going to be. We spent most of the day inside planning.

Friday Snowstorm Jonas hit! We were stuck inside for both Friday and Saturday because, "if it's unsafe to drive it is likely unsafe to walk." Which was totally true. The roads were HORRIBLE because apparently BV only has 1 Snowplow for the entire town! Luckily most of it is cleared now. We watched a lot of church movies, studied, slept, played some Ping Pong, etc. Yeah it got boring, but it was alright! We made the best of it. I was excited to get back out and work.

Church was cancelled Sunday because of the snow and ice, which was lame, because that was my last Sunday! We went to church with the YSA Elders, and apparently because of the storm they only had sacrament meeting, and just 1 meeting, instead of 6 for each ward, so basically it was the entire YSA Stake taking the sacrament at the same time. That was pretty cool. It was a really good meeting too.

Monday I was on exchanges with Elder Malin from Amherst up here in BV! He is a fantastic Elder too, he'll be high in leadership, I know it. He's solid and amazing. I'll miss him!

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

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

Between snow storms #blizzard2016

Only about 10" right now! #blizzard2016

Cutest shoveler's in BV! #blizzard2016

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

Hello everyone! I'm running out of time, so lets jump into this!

On Monday we were able to sit down with G. and T. and have a good lesson with our Elders Quorum President! The lesson was more directed to T., although I think G. was listening. I hope! She accepted the challenge to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, but wasn't too sure yet on the baptismal invite. It's alright though. I know it!  

Tuesday I headed up to Charleston with Elder Jacklin on exchanges! We had a TON of fun. Taught a ton of lessons too! They rock it up there! I got to meet three people that I got word of last night got baptized! The work of salvation is hastening! In the words of Elder Bednar, "Will we keep pace?" They certainly are up there! 

Wednesday was great! Up in Charleston, we got to pick up a New Investigator and invite her to take the challenge to read, ponder, and pray about the Book of Mormon! She was a pretty cool lady! After the wonderful 3 hour drive back, Elder Wasden and I got to see Sister B. and her family! We set up to come back Friday morning.

Thursday was AWESOME! We picked up 2 New Investigators this day! Also taught an 8 year old, that we don't count as an investigator because her father is a member, and he was there too! So 3 non-members and a less-active. It was a great lesson. Elder Wasden and I had never taught kids before, and we were teaching an 8 year old (P.), 9 year old (L.), and a 13 year old (G.). And P. & G.'s dad, D. (L.'s Uncle). We went really basic: 1) God loves you. 2) God tells prophets what he wants you to know and they tell you 3) Joseph Smith was a prophet that tells us God loves us. It went pretty well I think! We also had our quarterly interviews with President Salisbury on Thursday! He taught us all about how to ask for a fellow-shipper the right way, by revelation. It was pretty cool. I'm excited to use it!

Friday I was down in Timberlake with Elder Underhill! I've been with him before on exchanges. He's great! A lot of fun. Not a whole lot happened with him, but I can tell you he can cook really well! On Saturday I accidentally left Timberlake's phone in my pocket, so Brother A. drove us ALL THE WAY down to Timberlake AGAIN. He's a saint. Say a prayer of gratitude for Brother A., because he's the best!

The Sabbath was a great day! Didn't get to do a whole lot, it didn't seem like anybody was home, but we tried! We showed President and Sister J. and their family (Our Stake President) the "I'm Gonna Find My Cousins" from the 2014 RootsTech hosted by Elder Andersen. If you haven't seen it, it's HIGHLY recommended. :) We also showed them the New Year Video. They make really good chili.

Anyway, gotta go! Love you tons! Thank you all for your support of me! Have a great week, and make it the best one ever!!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

The YSA Elders like to play practical jokes on us, so...

I'm famous!

Elder French! He's the best!

How we responded.

MLC and Zone Meetings!

Hello everyone! I totally kinda forgot what we did this week.... so this might be kinda short because I can't really remember anything haha! I need to start bringing my journal to the library on Mondays with me.... that would probably be a good idea. Eh, hindsight is 20/20!

Last Monday we took it easy and played some board games with the YSA Elders. We ate a delicious dinner with the T. family! (All my friends are coming back!) and taught J. on his porch about the Book of Mormon! We really need to get into a better teaching environment with him. We discussed on Monday the possibility of going to a members home to have a lesson, and he actually seemed really open to that! We have been texting him daily scriptures, and he seems to really enjoy them! I think he will start progressing really soon. He was almost at church this week! 

Tuesday was MLC! That was a blast! Elder Wasden and I were up at 2:45 that morning and headed out the door around 3:30. We picked up the Roanoke Elders (I got to see Elder Brenchley!) and The Pembroke Elders and we were off! MLC was fantastic. For those who aren't aware, MLC means Mission Leadership Council, where we as leaders of the mission come together to council and discuss about the needs of the mission. There was some really good discussion and I got a lot out of it. A lot of it was about the difference between a goal and a vision, and how they are not the same thing. We ate a delicious lunch of West Virginia Style Hot Dogs and chips, and President Salisbury gave each elder there a tie! How nice of him. :) I got a cool black one that when it catches the light just right it looks like it has stripes on it. We finally rolled into BV again around 10:00 that night. What a long but awesome day! It really is a blessing to be able to get to be instructed - and to be part of the instruction - by such great people.

We had our first exchange on Wednesday! I was with Elder Curtis from Lexington here in BV. He is a really great Elder. I love him! He has been out for just around 2 months now, but I always get it mixed up because he just seems so much more mature than I was when I was at 2 months. We had a blast together. He is from Mesa, Arizona and wants to be an aerospace engineer. How cool is that? I'll tell you what, it's super cool. We got to teach G. and his wife T. that night! We picked T. up as a new investigator by teaching them the Word of Wisdom. I know, kind of a weird first lesson, but they had so many questions about it, I figured we would just go ahead and teach it to make things simple. They loved it! They, or specifically G., wasn't quite ready to live it yet, but I think someday they will be.

Thursday we exchanged back and then literally all of the rest of the day was spent planning for the next week and planning for Zone Meeting the next day! The guess the funnest thing we did that night was go to Lexington to set up everything. Nothing too crazy!

Friday we had Zone Meeting! It actually went super well I think. I was really happy with it, at least. There was a lot of good instruction given and I think the zone got a lot out of it. We talked mostly about helping our investigators attend church by inviting them in such a way that their excuses are gone and they will have a wonderful experience at church. After that, Elder Goold and Elder Norman, from Covington, came down to BV with me while Elder Wasden and Elder Higgins went up to the Clifton Forge/Covington area! We had a blast together. Triple Companionships are always a ton of fun because there is never a dull moment. I love both of those elders! They're both fairly new in the mission, but they know why they are here and love to work hard.

Saturday we were able to see B. and D.. B.'s arm was really hurting her, so Brother T. took us over there to give her a blessing with him. We had a little lesson about trials and being healed from the things we struggle with. B. continues to progress and be amazing! Sister H., our Relief Society President, told me yesterday that they have a calling in mind for her. Woo hoo!!!

Our Sabbath was wonderful. Elder Wasden and I studied Lehi's Dream a little bit. It was a great Comp Study. ;D We really did have a great day! Sister B. had us over for dinner along with our friends the H. family and some of her non-member friends that she knows. We played around with her (really mean) cat for a bit and had a really good conversation about the Word of Wisdom with everyone. Sister H. asked us, "What do I say when people ask why I can't drink tea?" We taught her the short answer, "The short answer is that in 1820 there was a young boy.... called as prophet.... translated the Book of Mormon.... received other revelations such as the Word of Wisdom..... you can know if the Word of Wisdom is from God by reading and praying about the Book of Mormon, for if the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph was a prophet, which means the Word of Wisdom really is from God." 

That was my week! It's funny, whenever I say these are going to be short, they are always my longest ones. Oh well, I hope you enjoyed! Thank you all for your wonderful and amazing support of me! I love each one of you! Have a WONDERFUL WEEK!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

Selfie from the library with Elder Wasden

A baking genius. Really. :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! (sent December 28, 2015)

Hello everyone! I hope your Christmas was wonderful and that you'll have an equally amazing New Year! We were blessed to see some serious miracles this week, and they are set up so that we will see some serious miracles this coming week! I've really gained a testimony of how the Lord prepares people to find, and we just have to talk to everyone and begin teaching immediately to find them! There are so many people waiting for the gospel. 

Tuesday we had the opportunity to go on exchanges with the Amherst Elders, Elder Malin and Elder Hurst! I was able to work with Elder Hurst up here in BV. He is a rockstar who had been out a total of 5 days when I had been with him! He is awesome though. We had a lot of fun together. We had a great conversation that morning and spent a lot of time in Alma 32 about developing faith. He is really great and just soaks up anything you give him! I also got to practice my teaching skills on him as I taught, so that was fun!

Thursday we had a day exchange with the YSA Elders, Elder French and Elder Harris! Currently, SVU is on break and there is NO YSAs for them to teach. Elder Harris and I rocked it out on one side of our area, while Elder Wasden and Elder French rocked it on the other side. We didn't see too much stuff happen, but Elder Wasden and Elder French saw TONS of success! They seriously set up like 3 or 4 appointments for this week! #sweetness. It should be an awesome week this week! We exchanged back at 5 o'clock and went to the J.s' house for Christmas Eve dinner! They made some awesome Ham, Mash Potatoes, Lots of other stuff, Mac and Cheese (Because you have to have Mac in the South over holidays)! We also had TONS of sugar that night, the J.s' fed us Tim Tam Slams, where you drink Hot Chocolate through a chocolate wafer thingy and then eat the wafer when it starts to melt. Like 30 grams of sugar per round. We did 4! :D Then we went over to the G.s and decorated cookies! MORE sugar! We took some cookies to some of our friends, the C.'s (potential investigators), which they were very grateful for. :)

Friday we had a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! WE started the day with a great breakfast at the S.'s! Super delicious biscuits and gravy. Like, for real though. Mmmm. We got caught in some rain (It was like 60 degrees! So cold! ;D) and hid under a pavilion while planning for the week and talking about random fun stuff. The S.'s again had us back for dinner that night, which was delicious and we got to celebrate Christ's birth with some really great people! Skyping was fantastic! Best Skype EVER! My family is AWESOME! Shoutout to Mom, Emma, Dad, Shay, Bella, Hank (and Maddy, Mason, and Elijah), and Kyle!

On Saturday we had another day exchange with the YSA Elders! Elder French and I rocked it in one side of the area and Elder Harris and Elder Wasden went and saw a TON of success AGAIN in the other part of the area! I don't know what it is about Elder Wasden's faith, but we have like 3 or 4 MORE appointments because of him on that day! Woot woot! This is going to be a GREAT week!

Church on Sunday we had an interesting experience! During Sacrament Meeting, President J., our Stake President, announced that just for this particular week we would be switching the speakers and the sacrament, so Sacrament would be at the end of the meeting! It was strange. It really taught me and showed me how much the Sacrament affects the general feeling of the meeting and how I feel during it! I appreciate the Sacrament so much more. Both President J. and Bishop D. spoke and testified heavily of the Sacrament and the Atonement. It was great! It is great to be a part of this church and to be able to use the Atonement to change every day. 

I love all of you! Have a wonderful week! Make it the BEST EVER!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

Feeding our crew! Hawaiian Haystakes!

Ready to go SKYPE!

My loot (My mom spoils me)

Christmas Day! Buena Vista 2015

Making Christmas cookies!

My stocking! Thank you Emma!

Shout out to Brad!

My favorite Christmas present! The Calendar!
Full of spiritual thoughts, crazy national holidays and important reminders from my mom! 

My amazing Christmas stocking from the S. family!